Sunday, January 26, 2014

LA's chicken and rice

nyc's halal opening in la was THE NEWS in the la foodie world in the past few days!

so...even though i was lazy to drive all the way out to hollywood and wait in line for who knows how long, my friend & i decided to check it out now (which was last night) rather than later...when this news spreads even more!

those i know went on opening night for chicken & rice los angeles truck waited long & those who got there late couldn't even get some because they sold out! so of course...we had to get there earlier to beat the crowd and get there by 7pm because they were opening at 8pm!

all we knew was this address & their opening time for yesterday 1/25/14 was 8pm which we found out by calling

but because we got there early and there was no line formed by then, we were confused! after asking two different parking lot attendants & calling chickenandricela several times, we ended up forming our own line with few people that were there before us

now that i've been and went through the confusion myself, i can share that the actual street the truck will be at is hawthorn! it is right outside of the parking lot across from mel's drive-in and depending on how many people are there, they picked the location so people can wrap around the corner of hawthorn & highland (so clever!)if you don't get there too early, you won't miss the scene because there are so many people lined up for this truck & you will see guys/girls in white shirt with chickenandrice logo that resembles the yellow cabs

the truck was to "open" at 8pm but they announced that they were running a little late & after taking a long while to set up their transformer mobile, started the business around 8:20 pm i tried to smell the food the whole time while waiting once they started cooking, but maybe because we were one of the first ones, the "delicious smell" was not really there...

take take your order while you are in line, so make sure you know what you are getting before you get to the front of the line!

knowing this and being such a fan of the halal guys, i purposely went without too much expectations because i KNEW it would be different

(i highly recommend going without expecting too much for those of you who also have a soft spot for 53rd & 6th)

because of this reason, i was pleasantly surprised when i finally took a bite of the dish after finding a spot for a quick photo-op below before eating

it was good, just not the same! i wish i had tried "other places" in nyc for "alternative" chicken and rice so i can tell you more in detail

nevertheless, if you are comparing this place to fame 53rd & 6th, everything tastes different

white sauce was completely off with strong garlic flavor & hot sauce didn't even come close because it wasn't hot at all and was sour (my friend mentioned that it was similar to taco bell's hot sauce and i agree)

rice and chicken were similar but again, tasted different

i never really eat the pita bread and salad but la used spring green mix while nyc used iceberg lettuce

new yorkers say that what made 53rd & 6th halal guys special was their sauces

well, chicken and rice los angeles has different twist to those sauces

so go with an open mind to try la's version of chicken and rice to enjoy this halal!

i personally think it was worth it for me to wait 1hr and 20min in line for the truck to be one of the first customers on their 2nd night of opening on top of total drive time being ~3hrs

they also still have $5 promotion for these bowls, which made it worth it

for more information on their opening times and such, you can check out their facebook or twitter